born June 22, 1947, Accra, Ghana
Ruler of Ghana (1981–2001).
Of Scottish and Ghanaian descent, Rawlings, then a junior air force officer, first overthrew the government in 1979, but he yielded power to a freely elected civilian president, Hilla Limann. Two years later he ousted Limann. As Ghana's ruler, he created workers' councils and established production and price controls but later abandoned these measures. His policies afforded Ghana relative political and economic stability. He was returned to office by election in 1996 and stepped down from the presidency in 2001.